


Zenjiteki

by atmura



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-24
Updated: 2019-02-10
Packaged: 2019-07-04 10:30:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 4,429
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15839406
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/atmura/pseuds/atmura
Summary: Chihiro and Akashi meet on the roof for the first time in Rakuzan. Chihiro is invited to play on the team. Akashi unnerves him. He can't deny Akashi's a good captain but for some reason he just wants to hold his hand. Though that would be weird. Will his feelings be shared or will Chihiro and Akashi end up on a bad foot?





	1. Prologue

No matter how hard you try, you can never stop yourself from meeting someone you were simply destined to meet. Whether the relationship lasts or not is something you’ll end up finding out later in life. Meeting is knowing.

 

Meeting brings forth change. The change is something you won’t know until after you’ve met them. But change always happens.

 

_Always._

 

Encounters are beautiful.

 

Something simply, “coincidental” could come to mean much more.

 

But there are people who have come to dislike human interaction. There are people that avoid people. But let me tell you.

 

_Predestined relationships can’t be avoided._

 

What happens to that relationship is up to you. Whether it makes it or breaks is up to all of you or whoever the relationship includes.

 

So, no matter how quiet and unsocial you are. There could always be someone who could change you.

 

But not all at once of course.

 

Change is gradual.

 

Change is slow, like the leaves falling off a tree during Autumn when there is no wind to disarrange it’s speed or direction.

 

In order to enjoy things, they’ll have to be gradual. There’s more effect if it’s long lasting.

 

Relationships are gradual as well, or important ones should at least be.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i did some weird shit because i couldn't stand how chapter one was two and etc so uH I'm trippin


	2. Opposites Attract

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Character introduction uhh

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In my summary for the story, I'd like to say I put bad foot in there for a reason oOpS.

 

**Chapter One**

 

Chihiro liked to live a life of peace. He liked to do things that he wanted to do, and hardly listened to what other people told him to do.

 

He didn’t talk if he didn’t want to. He hardly ever failed tests and quizzes because he studied hard to pass them. He didn’t want to fail.

 

Chihiro’s parents were kind and considerate enough to let their son do whatever he pleased as long as it was still morally (their version of morals) correct, and followed the rules of the house. Basically, he could be rude to as many people he wanted as long as it wasn’t his parents he was rude to.

 

He learned independence at an early age and was able to spend most of his days reading and worked when he wasn’t. If he asked, his parents would buy him books, because despite their son’s lack of emotional expression, they knew him well enough to know what he liked and didn’t. Out of the very few things he liked, books were one of them, and they topped the list.

 

Of course, since he was their only child, they did their best to make him happy and were proud to monitor his changes along the sidelines.

 

They were very proud of Chihiro. And Chihiro was very proud of himself as well. He liked his parents. They didn’t ask him for much, but they didn’t ask him nothing at all. They weren’t too loud or too quiet. They knew when they overstepped their boundaries and made him uncomfortable and knew when they didn’t step on the boundary.

 

His parents were a good balance and became the people that Chihiro loved most in the world.

 

He was very close to his family and he learned to express  _ some  _ emotions around them. Such as anger, sadness, and happiness. He wasn’t angry  _ at  _ them or sad  _ because  _ of them. He just liked to vent to them. 

 

It was a win-win situation because Chihiro hardly ever talked about himself and so when he did it was a very important moment. He trusted his parents and he liked how they listened to whatever he said. The thing with them that he liked the most was that his trust wasn’t placed on the wrong people.

 

He knew his parents wouldn’t leave him (unless they died of course but he tries not to think about it) like everyone else left each other.

 

Relationships would end - but Chihiro knew this one wouldn’t end. It’s stayed strong for 18 years now and he hardly doubted at this point it was even going to collapse. They’ve been with him since his beginning and he’ll be with them until their end.

 

Their end being the miracle day he thought of where they all died together and went to the afterlife with them. He wasn’t even sure if there was one, but if there was, he’d want to be with them. That’s all he knew.

 

Family and personal-wise, he was a pretty soft guy.

 

Outside, however, it was as if he wasn’t even Chihiro. It was as if someone possessed him the very moment he stepped out the door. He wasn’t emotionally expressive like he was at home, he wasn’t kind as he was at home, and he sure as hell wasn’t respectful to anyone as much as he was to his parents.

 

It was either he was very respectful or not at all. With Chihiro there was no in between. There was no need to cut any corners, just get straight to the point. Outside, Chihiro had an impenetrable mask.

 

Unless you were his parents, you wouldn’t know Chihiro was even capable of having a “white” side per se, since all you saw was the black. And if faced with both black and white (hypothetically) you wouldn’t know which one was the mask and which one was the genuine Chihiro.

 

So to say, he played both parts extremely well.

 

  
  
  


Seijuurou’s life was very far from peaceful. His family life was the farthest he could go from the normal lives that Seijuurou would’ve preferred.

 

He was the farthest one could go from genuine. No one at this point knew what the real him was because Seijuurou himself forgot long ago. He wasn’t Seijuurou, though it was still his body. Mentally, Seijuurou was never there.

 

He acted proud to cover up his confusion. He painted himself perfect and stabbed the word into his brain until everything he thought of wasn’t anything but perfect. He was all an act, an act he pulled off well because he was able to program himself mentally to be perfect.

 

Perfection.

 

It was what he stood for, but perfection never stood for him. Was being good at everything perfect? Most people make it out to be, but maybe that’s not the case, after all. Just as the meaning of perfection and life are vague, he was too.

 

He was, put shortly, had the potential to be everything  _ but  _ himself.

 

He lacked emotional expression to the T. He never smiled genuinely, cried, or laughed. It seemed as if they were all acts. Acts that seemed so utterly  _ believable _ and veritable. But they weren’t.

 

He was hidden within the darkness, shrouded by a cloud so densely packed that he couldn’t see. He felt as if all he did was wander aimlessly. He was surrounded and trapped, and there was no way that he could get out. He was stuck in a cage that he made for himself and he couldn’t get out of it no matter how much he wanted to.

 

And believe me, he really did.

 

He just accepted it eventually, that this was how things were going to go for him. There was no light for him. There was no way out. It only got darker and his cage smaller as time went on.

 

It sounds hard and it was, for a while. But Seijuurou grew to adjust and before long it was just the norm.

 

Peace.

 

It’s something unattainable to him.

 

He couldn’t ever feel at peace if he himself wasn’t at peace.

 

His father was overbearing.

 

All his father cared about was his business. During dinner - if his father showed up or even bothered to eat with him - all he asked Seijuurou about were his grades and whether he won games or not.

 

Mistakes were intolerable.

 

Trying to be himself was intolerable.

 

In the Akashi household, emotion meant weakness.

 

He was forbidden from crying during his mother’s funeral. He couldn’t keep it in though, and he received an earful for it at at home. During that funeral, his father however, shed no tears, even though it was his wife that died.

 

His face remained impassive and eventually having no other parent to rely on, decided to be who his father wanted him to be. To save him the trouble.

 

Everything he put himself through, everything he felt, he kept it all to himself. No one but himself knew. No one knew anything about him, not even his own father.

 

Seijuurou became independent. He relied on himself and himself only. He never opened up too much, if at all. He was closed off, because he did that to himself.

 

He isolated himself with his twisted idea of perfection. He became unapproachable unless he was the one who approached you first.

 

Seijuurou wasn’t a bad guy, he was just a victim from himself that needed saving.

 

  
  
  


Seijuurou and Chihiro are nothing alike, if not, complete opposites.

 

They have barely anything in common.

 

Yet, for some reason, they came across one another. They were tied together and from how the way things were placed, it was ridiculously hard to explain.

 

What is it that led them to the same high school?

 

What is it that led them to the same team?

 

What is it that led them to play together?

 

Would things have been different if they didn’t play the same sport or go to the same school? 

Yes, for sure. But not much different. They still would be opposites. They would still be different. 

  
  
  


After all, opposites attract.

  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again, thanks for reading. I appreciate it. Feedback would be great. I actually wrote this all in one day because a certain someone (you know how you are) left a very sweet comment and it made me very soft. ILY <3


	3. Basketball

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The development and where I put depth in this story is where their relationship, technically begins.

**Chapter Two**

 

When Chihiro first met Seijuurou, Chihiro didn’t know how to feel. He wasn’t necessarily ecstatic. He only joined the basketball team because he worried about his physical health. That’s all. The difference between he and the rest of the first stringers was the passion.

 

Chihiro simply didn’t care. He had no fascination with basketball - as far as he was concerned.

 

The most popular first stringers Chihiro knew were members of the Uncrowned Kings and the Generation of Miracles. They’ve played basketball for _years_.

 

They speak with basketball with such fervor that Chihiro is aware he will never have. They were staunch athletes when it came to basketball.

 

Chihiro had to wonder why this _Akashi Seijuurou_ had asked him of all people to play a new role. A new role that was difficult, a job of such importance, entrusted to him? What was it that he had that the others didn’t.

 

He hardly cared about basketball in a way that would compete against those who lived playing it. He wasn’t even that athletically fit like that macho first stringer. The only thing he could do was shoot.

 

What even was a _shadow_ supposed to do?

 

Chihiro didn’t know the answer to that.

 

He also didn’t know why he even bothered to make conversation with him.

 

Was it the way that he held himself like sovereignty? Certainly, the crown was invisible, but garish. The diadem was never physically there, but in the very few minutes that Chihiro had been with him, he felt it.

 

He wasn’t quite sure how to explain it but it was there. It shone brightly, like a lighthouse at night.

 

It disconcerted Chihiro immensely. He was confident with himself. But holding himself up to the level or sovereignty? No.

Chihiro didn’t know him at all. Nothing but his name and his club.

 

He didn’t know his year or favorite subject, especially nothing personal. But Chihiro felt discrepancy between him and that man. He knew. He could never fathom how he knew, but he knew.

 

The next day, Chihiro was instructed on how to be a shadow.

 

He didn’t like anything about it.

 

He was about to refuse, profusely.

 

If he was just _not_ doing anything. How would that help his original goal of working on his physically health? Simple, it wouldn’t.

 

Refusal was what Chihiro had in mind. He wasn’t necessarily outspoken, he wasn’t. But he did like to speak his mind. However, the seemingly nice boy on the roof was no more. Nothing but a mere act made by a mere act. A façade made by a boy lost.

 

He referred to himself as an emperor. A grand stretch from what Chihiro saw him as: a dictator.

 

He was only a first year, yet he donned the number 4 casually as if he’s been here his whole life. He was no usurper as far as people would say. But that’s all they’ll ever say.

 

He’s formidable, that first year. They’ll think. They’ll be afraid. Of him. Of what he plans to do. They’re _all_ afraid. Chihiro suspects that the young captain is plenty aware.

 

Strange how he doesn’t mention it. _It’s as if he believes such an obvious, reoccurring lie._ Chihiro thinks. His mind runs.

 

He thought of himself refusing and being let go with at least a small dispute.

 

“Will you do it, Chihiro?” Seijuurou inquired.

 

His voice required an audience. His words commanded absolute attention.

 

He commanded absolute obedience.

 

“Yes.” Chihiro replied. For that was all that needed to be said.

 

Chihiro had grown to dislike being a shadow. The word itself revulsed him endlessly. If he were a shadow, which he was, he wasn’t doing anything. What was the fun in that? He just stood there like a side prop or a movie extra. He was unimportant.

 

  
  


Seijuurou had seen Chihiro in practice one day and was nearly in awe at how he could be practically invisible. It reminded him a certain someone, a certain team during a certain time, and for a quick second his heart hurt for a bit.

 

For a second, Seijuurou thought that the Generation of Miracles could have been more, something better than they already were. Their skills would be heightened if they practiced everyday.

 

Something was missing and he didn’t know what it was. It wasn’t about their skills, but something Seijuurou felt to be fundamentally important. Nothing came to mind, so he got rid of it, tucked it into the very far crevices of his brain because in order for success, things that can be or are possibly obstructive should be disposed of.

 

There was something about the Mayuzumi that intrigued him so. Possibly because he was so similar to a person he used to know very well, now doesn’t.

 

Tetsuya Kuroko. A former teammate, a former shadow, and a former friend. Seijuurou decided that he and Tetsuya were no longer friends a while ago. When Tetsuya quit the team, the thinning strings that held them together finally snapped.

 

Maybe he would find some sort of solace through Mayuzumi, his upperclassman. Maybe if Mayuzumi became a good shadow–a better than Tetsuya shadow–Tetsuya would finally understand.

 

Maybe. Maybe.

 

_Maybe._

 

A small fire lit within himself, and maybe, he thought, maybe it’s possible to be friends with Tetsuya again.

 

After all Tetsuya and Mayuzumi were very similar. In Seijuurou’s beliefs, if he scrutinized everything Chihiro did, he would come to understand how Tetsuya thought and how Tetsuya did things.

 

But that was never a good thought. Yet it stayed in his head like a parasite, refusing to let go, until it’s eggs were secured and you weren’t ever safe.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> splash.
> 
> i sincerely apologize for my lack of updates. i haven't updated in a few weeks, maybe even month. i just have a lot of things on my plate. I'm moving houses so I have a lot of preparation I need to do and the house needs to be either rented or sold, my mom still hasn't made up her mind about that. she'll probably sell it though. school isn't really the problem to be honest, i finish my homework before i leave the school grounds - usually. i make anime edits and i have a lot of what are called meps to do and my recent ones may include fx and typography and maybe even animation somewhere. i love you, thank you, enjoy the bucket of my uwus that i threw at you earlier.
> 
>  
> 
> thank you for reading this chapter. once again, comment any feedback or opinion on this chapter you have. i receive all of them even though i didn't reply until 7000 years after. they go straight to my email and they make me happy uwuwuwuwuwu.
> 
> okay but serious question do you see the comments that aren't yours, your comments, and if you commented, do you see my replies-


	4. Malaise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chihiro sees the parts of Akashi that he himself wasn't aware of existed.

**Chapter Three - Malaise**

  


Chihiro could have told himself repeatedly that he wasn’t scared easily like an incessant mantra, but every time, I would do nothing to save him from the wrath of the ungrateful underclassman.

 

“Ahh, Mayuzumi, just the boy I was looking for!” His teacher had exclaimed, followed later on by throaty laughter.

 

Chihiro froze, turned around and approached his educator. His face displaying one of slight shock.

“I apologize, sir, for having to take up your time. What is it that you need me for?” Chihiro had felt proud momentarily. If his parents were there to hear him, they would have been very proud of him. He could already hear their congratulations. He could already see their smiles.

 

_Honey, look at our son being so polite!_

 

“No need to apologize Mayuzumi. Don’t worry about an old fool like me. You might be late for practice because of me, so it’ll be my apology from me to you.”

 

“Oh no, sir. No need for any apologies!”

 

“Nonsense! Now enough of this silly back and forth between us men. We all have something better to do.” Chihiro nodded at that statement, for it was true. He gestured for his teacher to continue speaking, and Mr. Dazai gladly did so.

 

 

“You have gotten the highest grade in last weeks physics test, getting all the required points. Congratulations!”

 

Chihiro took all this in stride. His face was the right combination of unperturbed, impudence, and bashfulness.

 

“Oh no, sir, I couldn’t possibly have. I didn’t study enough as I could’ve. I feel as if I didn’t try on it at all. Are you even sure it’s me?”

 

“I’m quite sure, there’s no other Mayuzumi in this school other than yourself.” Mr. Dazai let out a guttural laugh, his splindy hand coming in contact with Chihiro’s shoulder – a pat.

 

“Well then sir, if there’s nothing else, I’ll be going on my way.”

 

“Good luck in your club, Mayuzumi.”

 

“Thank you.”

 

With that, Mayuzumi bowed down low, his head dipping, his waist so bent he looked like a line.

  
  


 

To say that Seijuurou was mad was an understatement. Chihiro was late for practice. He was never late before. Why was he late now? He was fuming, Akashi was absolutely livid.

 

He knew that Chihiro was in fact not guaranteed a regular spot for the basketball team. Was that why he wasn’t taking something so important as seriously as Akashi would have hoped he would have?

 

What hope did he have - ever - to defeat his former teammates if none of his teammates now took them as seriously as he would have wanted them to?

 

He was nearly blinded by his rage, and he turned around so extraordinarily fast, that the Rakuzan regulars knew not to bother.

 

_He was in one of those moods._

 

_He’s too angry for now._

 

_I’ll leave him alone or he’ll whip out those scissors of his._

Akashi’s raging fury held no candle to the fires of hell and could be not be sated by mere apologies. Not that they ever reached his ears when he was like this. It went in through one ear and out the other.

Lo and behold, the cause of his unforseen anger walks through the doors.

  


 

Leaving the physics room, Chihiro walks with a light gait. He was proud of himself. That was his work. He walked into the basketball gym like he normally always did. But however, he failed to see Seijuurou’s welcoming and yet narcissistic attitude.

 

But what Chihiro did see was Seijuurou’s blatant lack of equanimity. He looked like the devil. Chihiro flinched slightly.

 

Seijuurou saw him flinch. He didn’t stop though. But he thought of stopping, he certainly did try stopping. He approached Chihiro, his steps slow, yet loud among the gym filled with the noise of squeaking shoes and the thudding of rubber hitting the wooden floor. Chihiro stared at him, Seijuurou stared at him back.

 

“Is something wrong, Akashi?” Chihiro spoke softly, still uncertain of his unusual to him, yet usual and expected behavior.

 

“Why were you late?” Seijuurou’s words rushed out too fast for him to calm down - too fast to hold back the venom laced within his words.

 

To Chihiro - it seemed that the world stopped. It wasn’t the romantic kind. It wasn’t when he was so happy, he fails to recognize anything else. It was as if he was time slowed down, uncomfortably slow. He noticed everything, and the information his brain transmitted made him dizzy.

 

The squeaking was suddenly too loud. His heart sped up, loud and dangerous thudding yelling at him - screaming at him - _move_.

 

Seijuurou seemed to blind him, his crown shone so unbelievably bright. He could feel the wind that was caused by the red cape on his back. His footsteps sounded like thunder in his ears in the middle of a night rainstorm.

 

So loud and dangerous, as if nothing could stop it. As if nothing could hold it back with sweet, gentle words like parents who reassure their children that everything’s going to be okay.

 

There was no warmth in the blinding light - just freezing cold.

 

This wasn’t Akashi Seijuurou. This wasn’t the man he had met on the rooftop that day. Not him, not him. He repeated the two words like a mantra in his head. But the words seemed to fade in his mind.

 

His hands were freezing. He couldn’t move, nor could he look away.

 

Memories flew at him at hyperspeed. That time when he was younger and jumped in an attempt to reach something, but fell and scraped his knee instead. He cried. He could hear himself crying so loud, he almost flinched. _Almost, but didn’t_. His mom rushed out of the kitchen and tore her apron off, throwing it to the side carelessly and ran towards him.

 

“ _It’s okay, Chihiro, it’s okay sweetheart. It’ll be okay. This is nothing. Honey, go get the first-aid kit.”_ She had spoke. In her arms, he felt warm. In the heat of her reassuring smile, he felt okay. He felt calm.

 

The tears stopped and he just stared at her, in eyes bright and full of wonder. His eyes dipped to his knee, scraped and red.

 

His dad rushed out, the white plastic container in his arms, cradled like he would a baby. He opened it and kneeled down next to him.

 

Chihiro felt okay. His parents were fussing over him. They didn’t have much, he knew that. But no matter how small their house was compared to the celebrities they see on the television, having fun and enjoying the time of their lives hung over on sordid affairs, he was fine.

 

But when Chihiro looked at Akashi, he didn’t see any fussing. None of the warmth and none of the soft gestures his parents did. He didn’t see any hugs.

 

He saw suffering, hidden malaise in his act. But only for a second.

 

And after that, Chihiro was too focused on everything else that he forgot.

 

 

 

 

-

 

 

Greetings,

 

I apologize that the story's moving a bit slow. My slow updates don't help at all. I'll update every Sunday from now on, but I don't when on Sunday. It could be really late or really early. But expect something next week. Enjoy!

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello fellas, this is extremely late. I haven't updated in a few months, and for that I apologize. If I don't update at a regular schedule attack me. By regular I mean - if I don't update next Sunday put me to the gallows.


	5. Secrets

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chihiro needs to come to a decision and he thinks he's come to his conclusion.

**Chapter Four - Secrets**

 

 

Basketball practice continued without much more trouble after that. Chihiro was to say the least, scared or at least some sort of uncomfortable around Seijuurou. He finally understood - much more than he did before - why everyone did as Akashi asked without even one word of protest. 

 

Seijuurou, was much scarier than the many people who were afraid of him in school believed. They just saw the haughty Seijuurou. They saw how we acted as the alpha and how he acted if his position or reputation - that he didn’t care to build but just followed him around - was jeopardized.

 

But Akashi to be truly angry? One of the most scariest sights Chihiro had seen, and he would admit that without hesitation. Of course, not in front of Akashi, that would be a death wish that Chihiro never had.

 

Throughout the entirety of the time Chihiro was in the gym, he dribbling away and cursing himself for getting into this mess that he probably would never make it out safe and sound of - much less alive. He couldn’t help but feel a singular stare, burning a hole into the very core of his being, piercing through his soul.

 

If looks could kill, Chihiro would be on the ground by now: illiterate, unbreathing, dead.

 

Chihiro knew he stood no chance against him. So Chihiro being Chihiro, backed off. He decided that it wouldn’t be worth the effort nor the suffering to subject himself through an entire suicide mission.

 

He couldn’t help but lock eyes with some of the other basketball members who gave him pitying looks or soft shakes of their heads, sometimes both, before turning away to do whatever it was they were doing before.

Chihiro felt embarrassed due to how different he was from everyone else on the team. He was the only third year guaranteed a regular position. He was the only one who sat down a majority of the practice. He was the only one Akashi religiously seeked out. He was probably the closest to understanding Akashi in this whole team.

 

He hit his ball once more. He needed to get used to the ball. That’s what Seijuurou said.

 

_ “At your state and lack of experience, you wouldn’t be able to be a better shadow than Tetsuya.” _

 

Chihiro was offended at that, but he couldn’t really say anything about it. He didn’t know anything about this Tetsuya other than the fact that he was to be better than him. But how could he be better than someone he knew nothing about?

  
  
  


 

 

Chihiro left the locker room, his gym slung over his shoulder. Practice was over and Chihiro was on his way to walk back home and rant to his parents. He hadn’t told them about Akashi yet more for the reason that he was very much so afraid of what they would think about it. They would be happy that he joined a club but once they heard his feelings about it all, they’ll go from proud to enraged in a matter of quick seconds. 

 

Now that he thought more about it, he didn’t want to tell them at all. He wanted to stay quiet about it. He wanted to act like he didn’t know what basketball was at alland that he never knew a first year shrimp named Akashi Seijuurou. He didn’t know anyone named Tetsuya (which was a truth, if he really thought about it).

 

But that was only one part of him. The other part of him wanted to tell them everything. He wanted to tell them that he had to defeat a guy he never even knew. He wanted to cry and tell them he didn’t want to do it. He wanted to tell them that he didn’t know anything basketball and that if he were to play he wanted to be cool. He wanted to tell them everything. 

 

eBut he was torn.

 

He didn’t want to stress out his parents. But if he was so obviously stressed, his parents would definitely take note of it. They would be worried and concerned and wondering if he was alright. 

 

He was too torn to make a decision. 

 

He was too stressed and he knew that.    


 

So he decided to wait. 

 

_ I’ll keep everything a secret for now. I’ll tell them later. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yooo,
> 
> Ya gurl actually updated it one week later yallllll enjoy.
> 
>  
> 
> But seriously speaking - I'm sorry that this is quite a short chapter. Akashi wasn't even in here. He'll be in the next one I promise. But similar to this chapter, Chihiro will have very little involvement in it. I'm sure they'll both be short, so for that I apologize.

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first fanfic I've ever made. I'd been used to making oneshots and they're extremely different. I hope to learn a lot from this. Please feel free to give feedback in the comments !


End file.
